CEO Cookie skin, Leslie Okoye reveals common ingredients that can be used to attain fresh skin.
Leslie Okoye is the founder of L’Okoye Cosmetics in Nigeria. She is a skincare expert and educator and the founder of the CookieSkin brand – the melanin skincare line for women of colour to achieve healthy flawless skin the right way.
The Cookie Skin brand extends into a skincare Academy on Melanin Skincare Consulting. With this, the mother of two puts the power back in the hands of women and men of African descent to choose the right products, prevent skin damage, make money, get results, look great and feel great.
With over fifteen years of hands-on experience with melanin skin issues, Leslie Okoye is the chosen skincare expert for many Nigerian and Ghanaian celebrities.
What inspired you to start your company?
The desire to create my own skincare brand was born out of the frustration of having to mix creams and oils and astringents to get the right cream for me.
My inspiration came from all the damaged skin I had seen and complaints I had heard over the years working in the skincare industry. I had witnessed their sadness for many years over the phone and in person and it just broke my heart.
Living in Washington DC for a while, there were so many beautiful black women of all shades. And the reason I would notice them was mainly their skin.
I had an eye for picking out women with healthy, flawless, fresh skin that I would say “her skin is like milk” or “like fresh bread”. So, when I decided to start a skincare line, I wanted to embody fresh and smooth, like a baby’s skin
What’s the biggest piece of advice you can give to other women looking to start up?
Make sure you remain authentic. Stop asking people, ask yourself ‘what am I really good at that comes easily? It could be anything, mathematics, accounting, technology, organization, negotiation, science, cooking etc.
Then ask yourself why? Why do I care about this so much? Most people only focus on trying to make money and miss asking themselves these two questions.
And in my opinion, failing to be real with yourself, especially women, leads to a lot of the frustrations, competition and burn-out we see in working women.
See the video below for more!
